Ordinary diners who take part in our annual survey each spring review restaurants and leave their feedback, but we also ask them to score restaurants from 1-5 on food, service and ambience. Harden’s then uses an average of these scores and measures them against other establishments in the same price bracket to arrive at the ratings published in the guide and online.

Snippets from some of your feedback may end up in the overall Harden’s review, noticeably they appear in “double quotation marks”. The rest of our pithy, bite-sized restaurant summaries are compiled by analysing the survey data and extracting recurring themes, looking at whether or not a venue was nominated in any of our categories – like ‘favourite’ or ‘most overpriced’ – and, of course, looking at the ratings for food, service and ambience.

The Harden’s ratings indicate that a restaurant is:

exceptional very good good average poor

All reviews are compiled from survey comments and ratings, without any regard for our own personal opinions, except in cases where restaurants are too new to have been included in the survey. If you want the editors’ view on new restaurants in London you can find them in our Editors’ Review section.

Basingstoke Restaurant Guide

Harden's Guides have been compiling reviews of the best restaurants in Basingstoke since 1998.

Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Basingstoke

Hardens guides have spent 15 years compiling reviews of the best Basingstoke restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 9 restaurants in Basingstoke and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Basingstoke restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.

Afternoon tea is a highlight at this hotel and conference centre, set in impressive gardens. Limited feedback on more comprehensive dining: one reviewer reported service not what youd expect of this fine-looking establishment and expected more of the menu, yet still awarded good ratings overall.

You know what to expect and you still get what you pay for at these good staple Asian canteens, which epitomise cheap and cheerful dining and whose reliable and reasonably healthy noodles and curries are great for a speedy, fresh-cooked meal, particularly with kids in tow.

The free giraffe-shaped drinks stirrers are always a winner for amusing youngsters at these supremely family-friendly diners, where staff are happy to work around balloons and colouring. Its world food menu offers great choice but divides views  a sizeable minority feel results are plain dispiriting nowadays, but parents in particular still say its good value and fun.

For the first 20 years of this guide, this famous pizza chain with its surprisingly distinctive branches was  with tedious regularity  the surveys most mentioned group: constantly re-inventing itself to remain everyones favourite standby, especially with kids in tow. Competition is sharper nowadays however, and since its ownership changed a couple of years ago (to Hony Capital) ratings and the volume of feedback have slipped well below their historical average. Yes, it is still much-mentioned, and still as reliable as ever to armies of loyal supporters, but harsher critics are stunned by the complacency and staleness of the brand: even the ubiquitous, good value voucher deals are starting to lose their shine.

2015 Review: Best avoided unless the children really wont wait  these fake French bistros have their fans as a breakfast destination, but other meals are sometimes so badly prepared and served as to be simply dire.